Literary notes about blasted (AI summary)
The term "blasted" functions in literature as both a forceful intensifier and a vivid descriptor, capable of conveying anger, destruction, or misfortune depending on context. It appears as an exclamatory curse—emphasizing characters' frustration with their circumstances, as in expressions of a “blasted existence” [1] or when condemning incompetence [2] and even insulting societal figures [3]. At the same time, it paints landscapes and conditions of decay and devastation, describing worlds and hopes left in ruin—the blasted earth ravaged by nature’s fury [4] and grand trees humbled by lightning [5, 6], or lofty ideals reduced to despair [7, 8]. In each use, its versatility lies in its dual ability to punctuate personal emotion and to illustrate a broader atmosphere of desolation.
- “This is a blasted existence!” thought Fyodor.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - he said, and added, after looking sleepily into Montgomery's face for a minute, “Blasted Sawbones!”
— from The island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells - That's all I done, and for that I've been chivvied for two days by those blasted bobbies over those blasted hills.
— from The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan - Do you not behold the clouds open, and destruction lurid and dire pour down on the blasted earth?
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - He shall be blasted as a vine when its grapes are in the first flower, and as an olive tree that casteth its flower.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - Look how I am bewitch'd; behold, mine arm Is like a blasted sapling wither'd up.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - I have myself been blasted in these hopes, yet another may succeed.”
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Thus are my hopes blasted by cowardice and indecision; I come back ignorant and disappointed.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
